“I’m a person,” he says. “I’ve got real feelings and I’m not afraid to be vulnerable in front of people who watch us play or that follow the league. It’s f–ked up that you’re saying that stuff about me, because just a couple months before, I was the greatest thing since sliced bread because I was playing for your team. Your team is on TV every day, playing late into the playoffs and you get to brag about how good your city is to some other people around the country. It was all good when I was doing something for you. It was all good when I was representing you. Now I decided to take my career in my hands and I’m a ‘bitch’? That’s confusing … because some people that I’d seen that cheered for me, people that I actually talked to, the faces they were giving me, the tone they had when they looked at me, it was weird.

“If I [respond], it’s: ‘No, you’re sensitive. Shut up. You’re supposed to take it. Everybody did it. Michael went through it.’ I’m like, hold up. Michael Jordan did not go through this. You know what Michael Jordan went through? Reading the paper and it says, ‘Oh, Michael Jordan was 7-for-33 the night before, how the f–k is he going to bounce back?’ That’s criticism. Criticism is not, ‘_____, you moved to _____, you’re a bitch, a coward.’ That’s not criticism. Criticism is calling me Mr. Unreliable and bouncing back the next night.”